Wind and water motor

ABSTRACT

This is a totally new way to harness the power of wind and running water as in rivers and ocean currents. It consist mainly of two supporting wheels mounted permanently on a main shaft. Between those two wheels are four blades, or sails, that will transfer the power of wind and running water to the main shaft to make it rotate.  
     Those sails will be mounted between the supporting wheels at 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees by means of secondary shafts attached permanently to the center of them and free to rotate between the supporting wheels. Those secondary shafts will protrude through one of the supporting wheels and a sprocket wheel is attached to each of them. All four sprockets will be connected with a chain and positioned in such a way that the sail mounted at zero degrees will be in a vertical position and the one mounted at 180 degrees will be in a horizontal position. Sails mounted at 90 and 270 degrees will be at 45 degrees angle but in opposed orientation. The sails rotate inside the supporting wheels at half the speed by means of another set of chain and sprockets. One sprocket with the same number of teeth as the ones used to rotate the sails is attached permanently to a mast that supports the entire mechanism. Another sprocket with twice the number of teeth is attached permanently to one of the sails&#39; shaft. These two sprockets are connected by a chain causing the sails to rotate at half the speed of the supporting wheels in the opposite direction. Therefor, when any of the four sails reaches the top position will be absolutely vertical facing the wind or the current of water when the entire mechanism is inverted.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to to mechanisms that utilize theforce of wind or running water to produce energy to be used for thegrinding of grain, produce electricity and other uses.

[0003] 2. Description of Related Art

[0004] From Biblical times the force of wind has been utilized to grindgrain, to pump water, and more recently to produce electricity. Also,rivers have have been dammed to create a water reservoir for manypurposes, the generation of electricity one of them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The present invention is a totally new way to harness the forceof wind and of running water from streams, rivers and ocean currentsmainly to produce electricity. It also can be used as a propeller forriver boats and as a substitute for sails on sailing ships, now defunctbecause of a high cost of the crew.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the basic mechanism.

[0007]FIG. 2 is an end view of the mechanism showing how the wing aremade to rotate to produce power.

[0008]FIG. 3 shows the position of the wings as the main rotor turns 45degrees.

[0009]FIG. 4 shows two rotating mechanisms on a common horizontal shaftwhen mounted upon a tower.

[0010]FIG. 5 is a transfer case showing the way to send the power to theground.

[0011]FIG. 6 is the transfer case at the ground level to receive thepower of two counter-rotating shafts.

[0012]FIG. 7 shows the addition of four idle gears to balance the activegears.

[0013]FIG. 8 shows the addition of four idle gears to balance the activegears.

[0014]FIG. 9 Is a single rotor mounted vertically on top of a tower.

[0015]FIG. 10 is a top view of the wings position on FIG. 9.

[0016]FIG. 11 is a cross section of a stream or river.

[0017]FIG. 12 of how the stream or river need to be dammed to insert therotary

[0018]FIG. 13 show how to mount the mechanism and the electricgenerator.

[0019]FIG. 14 Is a lateral view of a system to move the mechanism up anddown as the water raises and lowers with the rains.

[0020]FIG. 15 is a top view of the system.

[0021]FIG. 16 Shows the mounting of the mechanism on a river boat.

[0022]FIG. 17 Shows a three-mast sail ship.

[0023]FIG. 18 Shows a ship with three mechanisms mounted vertically.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0024] Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodimentsof the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation ofthe invention, not for limitation of the invention. In fact, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art, that modifications and variationscan be made to the present invention without departing from the scope orspirit thereof.

[0025] The present invention is concerned with a mechanism entirelydifferent from any other form that has been utilized to harness theforce of wind and of running water. This mechanism is more efficientthan the wind turbines that have proliferated recently on three counts:One, It needs a much smaller window of air than the current turbines.Two, The area of the current turbines that face the air is less than 10%while the area of the wings of the present invention is more than 80%,and Three, The speed of the blade tips of the current turbines is over200 miles per hour while the speed of the current invention, in a 10miles per hour wind is less than 10 miles per hour, therefore producingless noise and less probability of harming or killing birds. Thisinvention can be used as a way to propel river boats instead of the bigwheels now in use. Because of the small window of air that it requires,could be used to revive the sail ships in the wide oceans, since thereis no need of a single crew member to handle the sails. From the ship'scommand bridge the Captain or First Officer, or any crew member incharge, by means of servo-motors, can orient the wind motors to face thewind. Even at anchor, or docked, the wind motors can be oriented tocatch any wind to recharge the batteries.

[0026] Used in the water of fast running rivers, blocking part of thecurrent with small and inexpensive dams it has a great potential withouthurting the environment and permit the fish population to swim upstreamto spawn without the need of water ladders. This invention also has agreat potential in the utilization of the ocean currents as in the GulfStream in Florida, U.S.A. This salt water river runs from Key West toHomestead day and night, Summer or Winter 24 hours a day and thousandsof this Water Motors could produce huge quantities of electricity.

[0027] Accordingly with all the above I will try to explain how it works

[0028]FIG. 1—A perspective view of the basic parts of the movement,consisting of four blades or wings a, b, c, and d, anchored by four rods3, between two rotating wheels 2 anchored to a drive shaft 1.

[0029]FIG. 2—A lateral view of the movement to illustrate the way itwoks. The four wings a, b, c, and d,, anchored between the two wheels 2,will be made to rotate by a chain 6, that go around four sprockets 5attached to the wings. The chain will be made to move by anothersprocket 3 which is solidly attached to one of the sprockets 5. Thesprocket 3 will be made to rotate by another chain 7 which goes aroundsprocket 4 that is attached to the vertical mast that holds the entiremechanism, and therefore totally immobile. Sprocket 3 has twice thenumber of teeth as sprockets 4 and 5, therefore making the wings turn athalf the speed of wheel 2.

[0030]FIG. 3—Is a view from the same angle as of FIG. 2 when the rotor 2has turned 45 degrees to the right and the wings a, b, c, and d, haveturned 22.5 degrees to the left. When wheel 2 has turned another 45degrees the wings have turned another 22.5 degrees, and therefore wing dwill be in vertical position as wing a was on FIG. 2.

[0031]FIG. 4—Shows the entire mechanism plus the wind orientation tailmounted upon a tower 19. For illustration purposes the tail is shown atthe same angle of the main shaft 20. In actual set-up the tail should bemounted perpendicular to the main shaft 20.

[0032] The entire system is mounted on a main tube 6 held in verticalposition upon a tower 19 by bearings 17 and 18. On top of said tube is acasing 1 that will hold a generator or a transfer case that will beexplained in other figures. Through this casing there will be a mainshaft 20 on which will be anchored two rotors and on them only the mainwheels 2 and the wing axes 9 are illustrated. The wings have beenomitted to avoid cluttering the drawing. On the rotors are seensprockets 5 that will be driven by a chain (not illustrated) and on oneof those sprockets there will be attached permanently sprocket 3 whichwill be connected to sprocket 4 by a chain (not illustrated). As thewind make the wheels 2 rotate sprocket 3 will be forced to rotatebecause the chain that connects it to sprocket 4 will have to go aroundit because sprocket 4 is immobile.

[0033] Below the main two rotors there is a wind orienting mechanismthat will keep the rotors facing the wind and turning away from it as itincreases speed to the point with winds of gale force the rotors couldbe 90 degrees away from it. The idea is borrowed from an airplane. Thetail 20 will always be facing the wind. And the elevators, here calledflaps 10 will be down when there is no wind and will move back when thewind increases. These flaps at the pivoting end has a partial bevel gear11 that will engage another partial bevel gear 12 attached to a rod 13,which at the other end has another partial bevel 14 which will engageone more partial bevel gear 15 which is attached to the main tube 6.

[0034]FIG. 5—Shows the way to transfer the power from top of the towerdown to earth by means of a set of bevel gears and counter-rotatingtubes and rods. As the force is applied to the main shaft 2 bevel gear 4attached to it will make bevel gear 5 to rotate, let's say clockwise,and this gear will be connected to a tube 9 that will take that rotationdown to earth. Also inside the transfer case 1 there is another bevelgear 7 attached to the main shaft 2 that will make bevel gear 8 torotate counter-clockwise and that gear is attached to a rod 10 that willtake that rotation down to earth.

[0035]FIG. 6—This is the opposite of FIG. 5. Transfer case 22 is mountedon the ground exactly under the transfer case on top of the tower andwill have to be able to turn around pivoting on pin 9 and supported byas many wheels 18 as might be needed. The counter-rotating tube 9 androd 10 will transfer the power generated from the wind on top of thetower down to the take-off shaft 2 by means of 4 bevel gears. Tube 9 isconnected to gear 12 which will attack gear 13 connected to the outputshaft 2 making it move clockwise. Counter-rotating rod 10 is attached togear 15 which will attack gear 16 making it move clockwise and isattached to to the output shaft 2. Pulleys 17 are to illustrate a way totransfer power to any device like electric generators grain grinders,water pumps, etc.

[0036]FIG. 7—Same purpose as FIG. 5 with the addition of idle gears tobalance the power gears. Gears 4 and 5 are acting gears while gears 9and 10 are just there to balance the previous two. Gears 7 and 8 areacting gears and 11 and 12 are there to balance the previous two.

[0037]FIG. 8—Same purpose as FIG. 6.—Gears 13, 14, 17 and 18 are powergears while gears 15, 16, 19 and 20 are there to balance the previousfour.

[0038]FIG. 9—Simplest way to utilize this invention. It consists of asingle mechanism supported by a tube 6 that should be free to rotate tofollow the wind. Inside that tube is the main shaft 2 that that willbring down to earth the power generated by the wind. Connected to thatshaft will be the two wheels 1 that support the four wings a, b, c, andd that will be made to rotate by a chain (no illustrated) that goesaround the four sprockets 5 connected to the axis or each wing. Thechain will be made to move by another sprocket 3 which will be made torotate by one more chain (not illustrated) that goes around sprocket 4which is mounted stationary on supporting tube 6. The force of windattacking the wings is controlled by a tail assembly 7 that has beenexplained before on the description of FIG. 4.

[0039]FIG. 10—This figure has been included only to show the position ofthe wings as shown on FIG. 9 which show only wings b, c, and d.

[0040]FIG. 11—Beginning with this figure we'll see to utilize thismechanism to harness the power of running water. This figure is across-section of a river where 1 is the surface and 2 is the bottom.

[0041]FIG. 12—Is a perspective view of the same cross-section afterconstruction of a dam showing the opening where the mechanism will beinstalled.

[0042]FIG. 13—Is the same cross-section after the mechanism has beeninstalled where 3 is the concrete dam, 4 is the mechanism showing themaximum output of power when when paddle a is in vertical position,paddle c is in a horizontal position and paddles b and d are in thewater at different angles.

[0043]FIG. 14—Since the rivers volume of water changes with the seasonsthe entire mechanism should be mounted inside a frame (not illustrated)that should move up and down to present same face to the water. Thatframe should be supported by four nuts 6 running though 4 acme-threadedrods 3 that will be made to turn right or left by a chain 4 which isdriven by a servo-motor 5, said servo to be controlled by a float 7 thatwill go up or down on a rod 8.

[0044]FIG. 15—Is a top view of of the system showing how chain 4 goesaround the threaded rods 3 and the servo-motor by means of sprocketsattached to them. It also shows how the controlling float 7 goes up anddown on rod 8 which is supported by a bracket 9.

[0045]FIG. 16—Shows how to use the mechanism to propel river boatsinstead of the big wheels now in use.

[0046]FIG. 17—It is a sketch of a sailing ship with three masts and ninesails 3 that need a big crew to maintain the orientation of the sails.

[0047]FIG. 18—It is another sketch of the same ship with threemechanisms 2 instead of sails, with power shafts going down to thebottom of the ship to activate the generators 3 producing electricity tobe stored in a bank of batteries (not shown) and an electric motor 4 todrive the propeller. There is no need for a crew to man the sails. Themechanisms can be controlled by wire (electric) from the command bridge.

[0048] While the preferred embodiments of the invention have beendescribed above, it is to be understood that any and all equivalentrealizations of the present invention are included within the scope andspirit thereof Therefor, the embodiments depicted are presented by wayof example only and are not intended as limitations upon the presentinvention. While particular embodiments of the invention have beendescribed and shown, it will be understood by those with ordinary skillin the art that the present invention is not limited thereto since manymodifications can be made. Thus, it is contemplated that any and suchembodiments are included in the present invention as may fall within theliteral or equivalent scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is: 1—A mechanism to harness the power of wind and ofrunning water consisting of two wheels mounted parallel on a drive shaftand separated a certain distance to permit the mounting between them offour wings or paddles that will rotate inside the wheels. Those wing orpaddles will be mounted between the wheels at 0, 90, 180 and 270 degreesby means of axes through the longitudinal center of them. Those axeswill protrude through one of the wheels and to those ends sprocketwheels will be attached and all of them four will be connected with achain, so when one wing moves the other three will move at the samepace. When the sprockets are connected to the chain, the position of thewings should be mounted as follows: looking at one end of one wheel,wing number 1, which is mounted at top of the wheel (zero degrees) willbe exactly vertical, wing number 2 will be mounted (clockwise) at 90degrees on the wheel but only 45 degrees to the right. Wheel number 3will be exactly at the bottom of the wheel and totally horizontal. Wheelnumber 4 will be mounted at 270 degrees and inclined to the left 45degrees As the wheels and shaft rotate clockwise, the wings will rotatecounter-clockwise at exactly half the speed. Therefore, when wheels andshaft rotate 90 degrees to the right all the wings will have rotated 45degrees to the left on their axes. To make this possible another systemof sprockets and chain will be in charge. Mounted on one of the wheelssprocket and permanently attached to it, there will be another sprocketwith twice the number of teeth which will be connected by a chain toanother sprocket mounted permanently around the shaft to whatever issupporting the mechanism. Therefore, as the wheels turn clockwise, thechain will have to go around the fixed sprocket and the sprocket withtwice the number of teeth mounted on the revolving wheels will have tomove counter-clockwise. 2—The mounting of two of the mechanismsdescribed in claim 1 on the same shaft that goes through a housing inbetween them that will contain an electric generator and said generatorwill be connected to the main shaft by means of belts and pulleys,chains and sprockets or gears. The housing containing the generator willbe mounted on top of a tower to permit the mechanism to catch the wind.3—Same mounting of two mechanisms as described on claim 2 but thehousing between them will not contain a generator. Instead the mainshaft, which is horizontal, by means of bevel gears will move twovertical counter-rotating shafts that will extend down to the ground andthrough a housing and inside it, by means of a system of bevel gearswill be connected to a single horizontal shaft to which a generator orany other device could be connected. 4—Same mechanism described in claim1 mounted vertically on top of a tower and the rotating shaft extendingdown to the ground to be connected to a generator or any other device.5—Same mechanism described in claim 1 mounted horizontally and supportedby any other mechanism that will maintain it in front of any runningwater to generate power. This other mechanism will have to lift it orlower it to maintain it at the same level with the current of a river orthe tides of the ocean. 6—Same mechanism described in claim 1 mountedaft or two of them mounted on the sides of river boats to propel themthrough the water. 7—Same mechanism described in claim 1 to be mountedon masts on sail ships as a substitute for sails and connected togenerators to supply electricity to be applied to a motor moving apropeller, or stored in batteries to be used when needed.